Taste the Valley at new SteelStacks event

MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO / EMILY PAINE

Subarashii Kudamono Gourmet Asian Pears will be among the participants in the new festival, 'Taste: A Celebration of Local Farms & Food' on July 24 at SteelStacks.

Subarashii Kudamono Gourmet Asian Pears will be among the participants in the new festival, 'Taste: A Celebration of Local Farms & Food' on July 24 at SteelStacks. (MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO / EMILY PAINE)

Tastings from top chefs, a farmers market, cooking demonstrations and activities for kids will be part of a new Bethlehem festival, ArtsQuest officials announced Friday.

"Taste: A Celebration of Local Farms & Food" will be held noon to 4 p.m. July 24 at Bethlehem's SteelStacks campus. Events will be held in the ArtsQuest Center at Levitt Pavilion and PBS39's Public Media Center.

The event will be free to attend but you can purchase tickets ($25-$50) to check out the festival's Tasting Room, which will be in the ArtsQuest Center's Musikfest Cafe.

The Tasting Room will feature dishes to sample from more than 30 local food vendors and restaurants. Local wineries, distilleries, cideries and breweries will also be on hand to offer samples.

The restaurants will offer items with at least two ingredients sourced from area farms.

The festival will also feature activities for kids including the chance to learn how to milk a cow, arts and crafts, and a Zucchini 500, where kids can make, decorate and race a "car" made from a zucchini.

You can also check out cooking demonstrations and workshops including:

•Randy Spaide of Schoharie Ridge Orchard & Apiary, who will offer a program on beekeeping and collecting honey.

•Liz Wagner of Crooked Row Farm, who will lead a workshop, "Garden Herbs 101"

•Kathy Fields of Flint Hill Farm, who will offer tips on cheese-making.

The event will include music by the Billy Bauer Band and free screenings of films such as "Plant This Movie," a documentary narrated by Daryl Hannah that focuses on the phenomenon of urban farming around the globe.

Proceeds from Taste benefit the nonprofit Buy Fresh Buy Local of the Greater Lehigh Valley and its programs supporting the greater Lehigh Valley local food economy.

Tickets for Tasting Room: Open from 1-4 p.m., $25. A limited number of VIP tickets, which include early access to the event from noon-1 p.m., music by GT3 Jazz Standards and a special VIP cocktail by Eight Oaks Craft Distillers, are also available for $50.